Ubuntu 15.04, codename Vivid Vervet, non-LTS, has finally been released for Desktops, Servers, Cloud and other instances and flavours. This version comes with nine months support and some interesting changes, the most notable ones being the replacement of Upstart init service with Systemd service, Linux 3.19 Kernel, MariaDB 10.0, LXC 1.1 and LXD 0.17.

This article will guide you on how you can install Ubuntu 15.04, single boot, on UEFI Firmware machines with a manual default partition layout in order to preserve free space for future Operating System installations in dual-boot.

Be aware that all system installations made from UEFI booting sequence assumes that your hard drive will be partitioned in GPT style, regardless of the size of your disks. Also, try do disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot options from UEFI settings (if supported), especially if you are trying to boot from a USB UEFI compatible bootbale drive made with Rufus utility.

Requirements

Download Ubuntu 15.04 ISO image, which can be obtained from the following link:

Ubuntu 15.04 Desktop Installation Guide

The installation of Ubuntu 15.04 it pretty simple and straightforward as its previous releases. However, if you are booting and installing the system on a UEFI Firmware machine, besides the classical partitions you need to assure that you create a standard EFI partition required for the boot loader to pass the further instructions to Linux Grub.

1. The first step you need to take in order to install Ubuntu 15.04 is to burn an Ubuntu ISO image or create a compatible UEFI USB drive, place the bootable media into your appropriate drive, then enter UEFI settings and disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot options and instruct your machine to restart in UEFI with the appropriate bootable CD/USB drive.

2. After the machine boots the media, the Grub screen should appear on your screen. From here choose Install Ubuntu and press Enter key to continue.

Booting Screen

Ubuntu Grub Menu

3. On the next step, choose the Language for your system and press Continue button to move forward.

Select Install Language

4. Next, the installer checks if your system has Internet connectivity and inspects your hard drive required space. After all the requirements are met, just press Continue button again to proceed further. The installation can continue without an Internet connection also.

Preparing to Install Ubuntu

5. On the next step you must choose an Installation type. To ensure that Ubuntu doesn’t eat all your hard disk space while installing the system using the first option, Erase disk and Install Ubuntu, choose the last option with Something else and hit Continue button.

This option is the most safest and flexible in case you might want to preserve some disk space and install other Operating Systems in dual-boot after you install Ubuntu.

Select Installation Type

6. On this step you must create a Partition Table in case you have a blank drive and slice-up your disk. Select your hard-disk in case your machine has more than one disks, hit New Partition Table button and Continue button from the pop-up warning in order to create the GPT partition table.

Select Partition

Partition Confirmation

7. Now it’s time to create the system partitions manually. The partition table will have the following scheme:

To begin, select free space and hit the Plus + button to create the first partition. This first partition will be the EFI standard partition. Enter 650 MB as its size and choose Use as EFI System Partition, then OK button to confirm and create the partition.

Create EFI System Partition

Enter EFI Partition Size

8. Next, chose free space again, hit the + button and create the /(root) partition. Make sure the partition has at least 10GB of space and will be formatted as EXT4 journaling file system.

Create Root Partition

9. Next, using the same steps as for previous partitions, create a swap partition with minimum 1 GB. The recommendations are to use double size of your RAM, but 1GB is enough for new machines with a lot of RAM (actually the swapping slows down your machine considerably on non-SSD hard drives).

Create Swap Partition

10. The final partition that you need to make it should be the /home partition. So, select free space again, hit + button and enter the desired size for mount point /home partition. Use EXT4 journaling file system and press OK to create the partition.

Create Home Partition

11. After all the partitions are created hit the Install Now button to begin the installation process and confirm the hard disk changes by hitting the Continue button from the pop-up warning. In case a new warning window appears with Force UEFI Installation, hit both Continue buttons again as illustrated on the below screenshots.

Partition Table: Install Now

Confirm Partition Changes

Force UEFI Installation

12. After the installation process starts, choose your system Keyboard layout and hit Continue to move on the next step.

Select Keyboard Layout

13. On the final step regarding your system configurations, enter the name for the system administrative user with root privileges, type a name for your computer and choose a password to protect the admin user. Select Require my password to log in and hit Continue to finish the system configuration. After this step wait for the installation process to finish.

Create New User Account

Installation Process

14. Finally, after the installation process has reached its end, reboot your machine, eject the bootable media and login to Ubuntu 15.04 using the credentials configured during the installation process.

Installation Complete

User Login

Ubuntu 15.04 Desktop

That’s all! Enjoy the last release of Ubuntu 15.04 on your UEFI machine. Please stay tuned for the next article concerning Ubuntu 15.04 where we will be discussing what to do after you have installed Ubuntu on your machine.

30 Responses

please my laptop(sony-vaio E-series) does not support secure booting and the original OS is windows 10 but i have now upgraded it to windows 10 but anytime after successful installation of ubuntu, the grub scree does not show up ……it boot straight to windows.
please help

Hello,
I have followed your guide all the way through installation complete. when I arrive at the reboot step, though I am getting in trouble.
If I leave the USB in the port, it takes me through the same loop all over.
If I remove it, I get the error message “ERROR CODE 1962 – NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND”.

I am installing Ubuntu 15.04 on a lenovo machine which had windows 8 installed as default.
can you suggest me what I can do to install Ubuntu, as I have tried all possible set up configurations in the BIOS but none seems to work for me?

I’ve just had a catastrophically failed 16 GB SSD system drive replaced and the CMOS updated (The other drive is a 256 GB SSD). I’ve been unable to reinstall 14.04 server and just received expert advice to install 14.04 under UEFI. Will your instructions work for 14.04? I’ve no experience with UEFI.

Theoretically the instructions should be valid as long as you follow the steps and pay attention to UEFI settings! But, also, i don’t see any problem in installing Ubuntu under BIOS Legacy (you use MBR scheme for a 256 GB SSD).

That’s to much time for an installation! Is you internet speed low? Usually it takes no more than max 15-20 minutes to install the entire system + updates with 100Mb/s internet speed and a dual-core CPU and a regular 5400 rpm HDD!

Disable fast boot and secure boot options from UEFI settings, boot with a live cd/usb of Ubuntu Server from UEFI and use the option Rescue a broken system, mount the root partition and reinstall the system! Also, take notice that some UEFI firmware might not allow to install other unsupported Operating Systems. You should also consult the system manufacturer manuals before installing Linux!